On the Presence of Late Pleistocene Wapiti
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On the presence of Late Pleistocene wapiti, Cervus canadensis Erxleben, 1777 (Cervidae, Mammalia) in the Palaeolithic site Climăuți II (Moldova) Roman Croitor, Théodor Obada To cite this version: Roman Croitor, Théodor Obada. On the presence of Late Pleistocene wapiti, Cervus canadensis Erxleben, 1777 (Cervidae, Mammalia) in the Palaeolithic site Climăuți II (Moldova). Contributions to Zoology, Naturalis, 2018, 87 (1). hal-01737219 HAL Id: hal-01737219 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01737219 Submitted on 19 Mar 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Contributions to Zoology, 87 (1) 1-10 (2018) On the presence of Late Pleistocene wapiti, Cervus canadensis Erxleben, 1777 (Cervidae, Mammalia) in the Palaeolithic site Climăuți II (Moldova) Roman Croitor1, 2, 3, Theodor Obada2 1 Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, UMR 7269, MMSH BP674, 5 Rue Château de l’Horloge, F-13094, Aix-en- Provence, France 2 Institute of Zoology, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Academiei str. 1, MD-2028, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova 3 E-mail: [email protected] Keywords: Europe, red deer, Strongyloceros spelaeus, Cervus elaphus palmidactyloceros, antlers, taxonomy, systematics. Abstract elaphus (Flerov, 1952; Sokolov, 1959), but have complicated phylogenetic relationships according to the This article reports antler remains from the Late Paleolithic site modern genetic data (Kuwayama and Ozawa, 2000). of Climăuți II (Republic of Moldova) confirming the presence of wapiti Cervus canadensis in the Late Pleistocene of Western Therefore, our understanding of the “elaphine deer” Eurasia. The occurrence of wapiti in the East Carpathian area group is more restricted than the definition proposed by 20 ky BP coincides with the local extinction of Megaloceros by Lydekker (1898), who also includes Thorold’s deer giganteus, Crocuta spelaea, and Ursus spelaeus, and substitution of Przewalskum albirostris in his elaphine group. local forest reindeer with grazing tundra-steppe Rangifer tarandus Owen (1846) reported and figured an extremely constantini. We here provide an overview of paleontological data and opinions on the presence of Cervus canadensis in Europe, large basal antler portion from the Late Pleistocene a discussion on the taxonomic status and systematic position of deposits of Kent’s Cavern (England) that recalled the extinct deer Cervus elaphus palmidactyloceros, and propose a European red deer morphology but with large dispersal model for wapiti in Europe during the Late Pleistocene. dimensions approaching those of the largest modern North American wapiti antlers. The antler fragment bears two basal tines (brow and bez) as in modern Contents red deer; the circumference of the beam, according to Owen (1846), measures 381 mm (15 inches) between Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 the brow and the bez tines. The circumference above Material and research methods ...................................................... 4 Systematic Description ..................................................................... 4 the burr attains 375 mm, thus greatly exceeding the Synonymy ....................................................................................... 4 analogous measurements of modern European red deer Taxonomic remarks ....................................................................... 4 Cervus elaphus L., which range between 220 and 230 Wapiti remains from Climăuți II ............................................... 6 mm (Friant, 1957). Owen (1846) defined this unusual Discussion ........................................................................................... 7 deer antler from Kent’s Cavern as a representative of Conclusions ......................................................................................... 9 Acknowledgements ........................................................................... 9 the “round-antlered section of Cervine genus” and References ........................................................................................... 9 designated it as a type specimen for a new species within the new subgenus Strongyloceros (together with Cervus elaphus, Cervus strongyloceros, and Cervus Introduction canadensis): Cervus (Strongyloceros) spelaeus. This proposed subgenus Strongyloceros thus created the The debates on presence of wapiti-like deer in Europe tautononym Cervus (Strongyloceros) strongyloceros have a long history since Owen (1846) described Schreber, 1836 for the type species of the subgenus. poorly represented fossil remains of an unusually large Owen (1846) assumed a close relationship of this new elaphine deer that rivalled the giant deer Megaloceros species from Kent’s Cavern with North American giganteus in size. Under the term “elaphine deer” we wapiti Cervus strongyloceros Schreber, 1836 and here understand the Eurasian and North American Cervus canadensis Brisson, 1756, with a remark that the deer of the genus Cervus (red deer and wapiti) that deer from Kent’s Cavern may differ in having a longer were traditionally ascribed to the single species Cervus distance between the brow and bez tines. The remains 2 Croitor and Obada – Late Pleistocene wapiti in Moldova of Sweden. Nonetheless, some authors, for example De Stefano (1911), considered that the presence of Cervus canadensis in Europe cannot be proven based solely on poorly preserved osteological remains. Meanwhile, Cervus elaphus palmidactyloceros De Stefano, 1911 is another large-sized elaphine deer with a pending taxonomical status and systematical position. This intriguing deer from the Late Pleistocene – Early Holocene of Italy is distinguished by its large “wapitoid” body size and the presence of palmated antlers that are unusual for red deer (De Stefano, 1911). Apart from the work of Abbazzi (1995), who regarded C. elaphus palmidactyloceros as an individual morphological variant of European red deer, this poorly understood elaphine deer has enjoyed little scientific attention. Lydekker (1915) regarded Strongyloceros Owen as a junior synonym of Cervus Linnaeus and this viewpoint was generally followed since then. Friant (1952) on the other hand raised Strongyloceros to the generic status and accepted Owen’s species as valid. Apart from the very large size of antlers, Friant (1952, 1957) indicated other diagnostic characteristics of Strongyloceros spelaeus such as the oblique position of antler base with respect to the pedicle, and the complete fusion of the radius and the ulna. It is important to note that Friant Figure 1. The geographical location of the Paleolithic site Climăuți II (indicated with an asterisk). (1957: 61) reported both Sprongyloceros spelaeus and Cervus elaphus in the fauna of the Kent’s Cavern. Friant (1957) also ascribed the remains of a large-sized of Strongyloceros spelaeus and associated fauna come deer from continental Europe, earlier described as from the “terre de la caverne” layer of Würmian Age Cervus primigenius Kaup, to Strongyloceros spelaeus; (Friant, 1957). According to Higham et al. (2011), most even though, as she notes, the antlers of this continental of Kent’s Cavern fauna from the main cave deposits is large-sized stag remained unknown. dated back to 50,000 – 25,000 years before present. According to Lister (1987), some of specimens By the end of 19th century, several reports on the from Kent’s Cavern ascribed by Friant (1952, presence of large fossil wapiti-like deer in Europe 1957) to Strongyloceros spelaeus actually belong appeared in the scientific literature. Gervais (1861, to M. giganteus: the palatal fragment Nr. 5646 with 1872) reported a large-sized Cervus strongyloceros from upper tooth series with weak lingual cingulum in the Cave of Pontil near Saint-Pons (Herault, Southern upper molars (Friant, 1957: Pl. III, fig. 1), the left France) and Loubeau Grotto near Mille (Western hemimandible Nr. 14.11.35 (Friant, 1957: Pl. III, fig. France), associated with a typical Late Pleistocene 3) with well-expressed pachyostosis (the thickness fauna. Belgrand (1883: Pl. 22, fig. 1) described a of mandible in front of the third molar amounts to proximal part of elaphine antler with pedicle from the 37 mm), which falls within the range of variation of Seine valley as “Cervus (canadensis?)” noticing the Megaloceros giganteus samples from Ireland (28.1- exceptionally large size of the antler (the antler beam 41.5 mm) curated at the Natural History Museum of circumference above the bez tine is 210 mm). De Rance London), the metacarpal Nr. 24.1.1938 (Friant, 1957: (1888) reported Strongyloceros spelaeus from Cefn Pl. IV, fig. 6), and the metatarsal Nr. 16.3.1936 (Friant Cave (Wales) in association with a Late Pleistocene 1957: Pl. IV, fig. 7). Indeed, the metapodials from fauna. Geist (1998) indicates the presence of wapiti- Kent’s Cavern perfectly correspond to metapodial like antlers (figured by Ahlén 1965; publication not measurements of the robust short-limbed form of giant available to the authors) in early postglacial